Is a balance between a healthy lifestyle and the conditions of modern life possible?
Despite an estimated prevalence of one million cases per year of poisoning of this nature and the ability to affect virtually all biological systems of the human body, heavy metal toxicity is generally underappreciated as a major cause of disease in humans.
Heavy metals may be the main causative agent of common neurological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, autoimmune diseases, and disorders associated with high levels of oxidative stress and cellular dysfunction.
According to the opinion of the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 13 heavy metals of importance for human health and the environment, namely arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, mercury, manganese, nickel, lead, tin and titanium, but there are other metals and metalloids with considerable potential to affect human health.
Heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and others are found all around us. The increasing level of pollution and the predominant use of chemicals in industry has led to the increase in the degree of danger of heavy metal toxicity to our health. Cigarettes, seafood, rice, non-potable water, spices can be listed among the most common sources of toxicity.
There are professions and leisure activities (which involve, for example, frequent and prolonged contact with fuels, munitions, paints, rubber and semiconductor manufacturing, industrial smelting, mining, classical photographic processing, agriculture, welding and storage activities waste in general or radioactive waste in particular) with a higher risk of exposure to heavy metal toxicity.
These toxic elements can significantly increase the risk of disorders such as dementia, infertility, diabetes and cancer, can also cause liver, kidney and brain damage and affect the cardiovascular, nervous and endocrine systems.
Despite the natural ability of the human body to eliminate these toxic elements, in situations where the net amount of heavy metals retained in the body exceeds the physiological tolerance, the occurrence of adverse health effects is inevitable. In such cases, the signs and symptoms may be similar to those seen in other disorders and conditions, and consequently may not be immediately recognized as being caused by heavy metal toxicity. Such signs and symptoms may include:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Dysfunction of the central nervous system
- Heart problems
- Anemia
In this context, screening, quantification, diagnosis and monitoring programs are essential for determining the level of metals and heavy elements present in the body and which can affect its various systems, so that the environments used to measure toxicity necessarily vary as well.
Testing to detect the presence of heavy metals in the body is a valuable tool for doctors because it allows identifying the exposure of people predisposed to the toxic effect of certain metals as well as making appropriate therapeutic decisions.
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